Menu pays tribute to Neville Brand

Wednesday

Jul 16, 2014 at 7:00 AM

Pioneer Club has a history with the actor from Kewanee

Dave Clarke

The Pioneer Club in downtown Kewanee is getting on the Neville Brand bandwagon by planning the week's menu specials around the late movie star from Kewanee.The Pioneer Club's Tom May met Brand in the Las Vegas airport in the 1960s. As Tom tells it, as a boy, he once accompanied his father, the late Jim May, on a "vacation" to the Nevada town, then much smaller than now. Gambling was also just becoming the main attraction.While walking through the airport, Jim spots Brand playing the slots, apparently on a layover while filming the "Laredo" TV series. He walks up, introduces himself and his young son as being from Kewanee, but unimpressed (or immersed in the game), Brand throws them a quick "Oh. Hi…" and goes back to pulling the arm of the slot machine.The Pioneer Club itself has a place in one of the stories told about Brand leaving Kewanee for Hollywood and vowing never to return.Then called The Dome, at 206 N. Chestnut St., Brand is said to have left the establishment early one morning, jumped over a parking meter and declared he was leaving the town for good and heading for Hollywood. Some say he swore he would never return. Other accounts differ.In 1984, May sponsored a Neville Brand Look-Alike Contest in honor of his contribution to motion pictures and keeping the promise made in front of The Dome in 1947 to make it in Hollywood. The contest was won by Denny Scott.Monday's special at the Pioneer was the half-Neville Brand salad and Tuesday's was the Duke Burger, so named for the character Brand played in “Stalag 17” with William Holden.Today's special is the Tora! Tora! Tora! Chicken Wrap in honor of Brand's role as Lt. Kaminsky in the movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor.Thursday, Laredo Tacos will be served noon and night, and Friday's special will be "Return from the Sea" with fries, in honor of the only movie in which Brand played a romantic lead in 1954.Saturday, customers can have Neville Brand's favorite prime rib basket and at 7 p.m. there will be another Neville Brand Look-Alike Contest.Sunday's special will be "Love Me Tender"-loin with chips, in honor of the movie in which Brand starred with Elvis Presley.Customers are also being asked to sign a guest book and include any memories they might have of Brand, who graduated from Kewanee High School in 1939 and died in California in 1992.